Venetian Light | Weekly Photo #71
This is one of the most famous views in Venice and one I absolutely love. The winding Grand Canal which cuts through the city, lined with those iconic red and white striped mooring poles and architecture that spans a thousand years topped with traditional terracotta tiles. All of this leading to the main focal point of the domes that belong to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute or known simply as the Salute. Translated to Saint Mary of Health and finished in 1681, this 17th-century church was built as a votive offering to commemorate the end of a terrible outbreak of the plague and needed an astonishing one million wooden piles driven into the ground to support the weight of this ornate stone structure.
“To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius.”
Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 39mm | 1/20th Second | f/9 | ISO200
This photo was taken during my second visit to this jewellery box city in October 2018. I took a wider shot of this view from Ponte dell'Accademia with a single gondola on the water which you can find here Weekly Photo 11 | Solitary Gondola and as I said in my previous post, I got a bit lucky with the river traffic as I only had to wait around for 20 minutes before it cleared for a short while, allowing me to snap a few different shots of the city.
It was getting towards the end of the day and at this time of year, from this vantage point, the sun was going down almost directly behind me so the scene I was photographing had some gorgeous defused light falling on it as the sun was slightly obscured by a thin layer of cloud. Although being in October meant it wasn’t as busy as during the summer months, there was still plenty of people on the bridge and with the light levels getting lower, my shutter speed was getting slower and getting a sharp photo handheld was getting tricky. I could have opened up the aperture or cranked up the ISO but to get the best quality and depth of field, I used a small table-top tripod and rested it on the thick wooden rail that lines the bridge so I didn’t have to compromise the photo at all.
In my previous photo, the focal point was the gondola in the foreground but for this photo, it’s the Salute so I zoomed from 18mm to 39mm to bring the domes forward and make them more prominent in the photo. The diagonal line created by the buildings that line the canal on the right-hand side leads the eye in nicely to the Salute and the darker slither of buildings on the left help frame and add balance to the composition.
Considering how busy Venice can get in high season, the lack of river traffic and the cooler diffused light falling onto the buildings gives the photo a sense of quiet making the city seem almost sleepy, so I tried to respect that mood and reduce the contrast and colour saturation in post-processing. I think it worked out pretty well.
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.